Field of Disclosure
The disclosure relates to the field of image identification, and in particular, to systems, methods and apparatuses for identifying objects in paused video images. The disclosure also provides systems, methods and apparatuses for displaying object information in paused video images.
Description of the Related Art
With the development of hardware technologies in terminal devices such as personal computers and mobile phones, more and more users choose to use terminal devices such as personal computers or mobile phones to watch various television programs provided by video websites. The so-called video websites are sites that enable, by using the support of related technical platforms, Internet users to publish, browse, and share video works online in a smooth manner. Well-known video web sites include Youku, LeTV, iQiyi, and the like. Generally, video websites launch respective video client applications (also referred to as video clients), dedicated for playing video works provided by the video websites on terminal devices such as mobile phones or personal computers. Examples of video clients include the Youku video client, iQiyi video client, and the like.
With the rapid growth of video websites, advertisers are starting to favor video advertising. Advertising has become one of the main profit drivers in the business of video websites. Video websites usually push advertisements to terminal users at particular times, such as before video files are played or when videos are paused.
To better attract attention of end users (so that they pay more attention to video advertising), video websites have started to advertise objects (e.g., merchandise) associated with the content of the played videos. That is, at a particular time and image of a video, a promotional picture or a link associated with an object in a current video image is annotated manually (the process is also referred to as “dotting”). The annotated merchandise promotion information is displayed during the process of playing a video, thereby providing targeted promotion of the object that is closely related to the currently played video and thereby attracts users more effectively, as well as improves user experience in receiving advertisements while watching videos.
The described technique of implementing targeted advertising by means of manual dotting has the following disadvantages despite the aforementioned advantages.
First, current techniques involve excessive manual labor. Therefore, when a video file has a relatively large number of objects that need to add annotated information, or when a relatively large number of video files are required for processing, the manual processing speed fails to meet the efficiency requirements.
Second, manually identifying objects in video images and matching the identified objects with existing objects depends on an individual's experience and knowledge of the existing objects. Therefore, in a situation where a large number of objects exist, it is usually impossible to control the accuracy of the identifying and matching process; and consequently, inconsistency between the object information advertised in a video playing process and the object(s) shown in a video image may occur, adversely affecting user experience.